If you are one of the WhatsApp Web users, then you should restart your web browser immediately, after specialists discovered a horrible vulnerability! It is in fact a grave security flaw that allows criminals to gain access to your personal data in just a couple of seconds. Just think about the fact that malicious people can have your photos, videos and even contacts instantly.
How does it work?
As far as it seems, the hack can take place while the user doesn’t even realize it. Check Point, which is a security firm, reported that the flaw can be exploited in this manner: the hacker only needs to send one fake image to various WhatsApp users. The image can be absolutely innocent, but this is not relevant, since the hackers use it with the purpose of “burying” malicious code under it. Once you download the image, the code infiltrates the computer, and the hacker gains full access to your account and the data within.
Once they get in, they can use your login data to forward images to all your contacts, thus spreading the bad code even more and infecting millions of accounts. However, this vulnerability was found only on users who were also using the WhatsApp Web service. It was proven that there were some people who were affected even though they were using Telegram, the rival service.
Solution
Thankfully, after the company discovered the flaw, they sent a note urgently to WhatsApp, which released in no time a patch for the issue. OdedVanunu, who is the head of product vulnerability research at Check Point, declared that the vulnerability endangered hundreds of millions of WhatsApp Web and Telegram Web users. The company is now asking their users to restart the browsers in order to avoid becoming a victim of the scam.
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